[Comment] Tobacco in China: taming the smoking dragon

May 30, 2015

The Lancet 385, 9983 (2015)

Author: Bernhard Schwartländer, Angela Pratt

Beijing’s air pollution makes news headlines around the world: hazy images of people’s faces shrouded in masks and iconic monuments obscured by smog are now as synonymous with the city as the monuments themselves. As expatriate residents of Beijing, our friends and family from home often ask us: “But living in Beijing, how do you breathe?” We hope the answer is more easily after June 1, 2015, when Beijing’s new smoke-free law will take effect.1 Although Beijing’s outdoor ambient air pollution routinely makes the news, indoor air pollution in the city—and across China—is often worse than outdoor air pollution.